An agitated Donald Trump flipped at a reporter for asking a question about the Epstein files, even after he gave his party the go-ahead to release them.
The contradictory tantrum came as President Trump, 79, spoke to reporters on the tarmac at Palm Beach International Airport.
One journalist brought up dissenting GOP lawmaker Thomas Massie, who suggested a possible Justice Department probe using the files was an administration “smokescreen” to block their full release.
Posed with Massie’s comments, Trump went in on the reporter. “Well, I don’t want to talk about it because fake news like you—you’re a terrible reporter—they just keep bringing that up to deflect from the tremendous success of the Trump administration.”
He then focused his ire on the Kentucky Republican. “So, a guy like Massie, his poll numbers are showing he’s at like six percent approval rating right now. We call him Rand Paul Jr. because he never votes for the Republican Party. So they’re using Jeffrey Epstein as a deflection from the tremendous success we’re having as a party.”
Earlier on Sunday, Massie, 54, had told ABC’s Jonathan Karl on This Week that Trump and the Justice Department are guilty of a deflection, after the president on Friday directed Attorney General Pam Bondi and the FBI to look into Epstein’s relationship with former President Bill Clinton and other prominent Democrats.
“If they have ongoing investigations in certain areas, those documents can’t be released,” Massie said. “So, this might be a big smokescreen, these investigations, to open a bunch of them to, as a last-ditch effort to prevent the release of the Epstein files.”
Trump announced the probe on Friday before adding in a Truth Social post on Sunday, “House Republicans should vote to release the Epstein files, because we have nothing to hide.”
He said the Justice Department was “looking at various Democrat operatives (Bill Clinton, Reid Hoffman, Larry Summers, etc.) and their relationship to Epstein, and the House Oversight Committee can have whatever they are legally entitled to, I DON’T CARE!”
Trump, meanwhile, was in prickly form on Sunday as he snapped at another reporter during the press gaggle at Palm Beach Airport. He was answering a question about former Fox News star Tucker Carlson’s controversial interview with far-right podcaster Nick Fuentes.
The reporter interrupted his answer before he scythed her. “Will you let me finish my statement?” Trump said. “You are the worst—you’re with Bloomberg, right? You are the worst, I don’t even know why they have you.”
It is unclear which reporter received the rebuke. Mediaite reported that it may have been former Bloomberg journalist Jennifer Jacobs, who is now a senior White House reporter for CBS News.
The post Triggered Trump Fumes at Reporter Asking About His Epstein Mess appeared first on The Daily Beast.
